


Better Late Than Never

by zinjadu



Series: Never Put Together Entirely [12]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Ghosts, In the Fade, Purple Hawke, really sucks, sometimes help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 18:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14754386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinjadu/pseuds/zinjadu
Summary: An AU: Hawke in the Fade post HLTA.  She took the nosedive, and totally killed that demon.  So now what?





	Better Late Than Never

"Mother," she says, and she should have known. In the Fade, spirits could linger, could touch everything, and what were the dead but spirits that had fled their bodies?

 

"Marian, what have you gotten yourself into now?" the spirit of her mother asks, and Hawke grimaces. Even in death, Leandra Hawke could find fault with a mad, heroic last act.

 

"Oh, just a little spot of bother, nothing to worry about," Hawke replies, walking. Always walking. The Fade is endless, but her body is not. Something will need to be done about that.

 

"I worried for you," Leandra says. "I always did. You should never have had so much on your shoulders."

 

"Well, whose fault is that, Mother?" Hawke bites out, biting. Oh, she'd really like something to eat right about now. Yes. Concentrating, she manifests a pie. A meat pie, the kind her mother learned to make after fleeing to Ferelden.

 

"Mine... and your father's." Leandra dead is much more reasonable than Leandra alive, Hawke thinks, so that's something.

 

"No argument there," Hawke allows, and then takes a bite. It might not actually keep her alive, but at least she doesn't feel hungry anymore. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, and she can feel the vestiges of Leandra's disapproval at her lack of manners. "I heard you, you know. Arguing with him, Father, Malcolm, before he took me out on my first job. You thought I was too young. I know you tried."

 

"Oh, my daughter, I failed you then, and maybe every day since," Leandra admits, but Hawke shrugs. Once, an admission like that would have meant the world to her, now... now she doesn't know. She's probably going to die soon, stuck here, so what does any of it matter anymore?

 

"Did you stick around just to say that?" Hawke asks before she can stop herself, and the spirit falls silent for several moments.

 

"I tried to watch over you, after I was gone, but you did not wish to see me. Here, here I might be able to do something for you, something I could never do in life," Leandra says, and Hawke raises a skeptical eyebrow. Part of her wants to retort there was a lot you couldn't do in life, Mother, but arguing with a dead person seems like kicking a person when they're down. And not in a fun, ha, see how you like it, sort of way.

 

"I can actually take care of you, for once," Leandra says, and the world goes twisty.


End file.
